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Islam is not a problemtag:https:,2014:/www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/.178672014-11-10T04:04:07Z2014-11-10T04:04:53Zdmarci
Islam is not the problem but the American war industry, and Sam fails to see it;((
or conveniently omits this fact like his friend Hitch, that way he get a lot of air time;)))
Hitch debated Chomsky and Chomsky’s views are not represented in the media at all, Sam learned that lesson, and now know what to represent to be aired, this is intellectual hypocrisy and dishonesty or “good business”
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Why is Buddhism not thrown under the same umbrella of “evil world religions” as all the rest?tag:https:,2014:/www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/.178632014-11-05T05:55:02Z1970-01-01T00:00:00ZPhishPhanPhil
I think the title of this topic pretty much sums it up. While we are sitting here preaching how “religion is the root of all evil” how do we leave out Buddhism? Is it because somehow the concept of meditation with the chief end being to “clear one’s mind” is considered acceptable? Why not meditate ON a subject, maybe some deep revelation like the very concept of a sovereign all-powerful God? I know that we have all been sold the idea that we are free-thinkers, so why not practice our free-thought and meditate on whether or not it is logical or reasonable to believe in a God at all? I hope nobody is too offended at the concept of somebody taking the very concepts that make up christianity (as one example) and trying to determine if the evidence makes it more reasonable to believe them or to dismiss them. I will try not to overwhelm anybody with brand new concepts but I would like to introduce the idea of “collective probability”. This is the concept of taking an idea, or a truth claim, and trying to estimate whether or not the evidence for it is greater than 50%. Based on this I would argue that if the collective case for Christianity even reaches a roughly 50% likelihood of being true one should believe in it. Or if the evidence supporting any truth claim, such as evolution, reaches roughly 50% one should believe in it. The reason for this is that, in believing, one has nothing substantial to lose and everything to gain.
This type of reasoning dates back to 1909 when Emile Borel calculated what is sometimes called “the threshold of mathematical possibility” being 1 in 10 to the 50th power, this is what he stated should be the rule of thumb for something being “mathematically impossible” or not. Right from the start we can rule out insane theories like the multiverse theory, that there are billions upon billions of universe’s, this is yet another grasping at straws attempt to make sense of things without taking a God into account.
Keep in mind that there is always a tendency inside all of us to believe things that are comfortable to believe, instead of following the evidence wherever it leads, and accepting whatever that evidence indicates. This tendency in thinking should always be emphatically discouraged. We live in a day and age where atheism, and humanism is the pop-ideology. In other words its easiest to just surrender to the flow, especially when we are being told that it is supported with scientific proof. The facts however are quite the opposite. I strongly encourage everybody here to consider the evidence behind Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, atheism, humanism, and every other religion that is out there before determining which one to follow. If you find that the evidence supporting Buddhism and dharma, and eastern mysticism is strongest than do not deny the evidence. If however, you discover that the evidence is strongest supporting scientism than again erase any prejudices that you may have. This is what free-thinking actually is, it is not believing whatever you read in the latest best-selling book on philosophy written by a scientist like Dawkins or Harris. Because you read in a book that you are a “free-thinker” if you deny the teachings of say the catholic church, does make it so. If anything, you should be highly skeptical of someone who is trying to tell you that you have “evolved to a higher intellect than people of faith” and that being a humanist/atheist makes you a condemned person (living in a left-wing liberal materialist country in the west no less)! Such outrageous statements should immediately put up red flags where you ask the question “why are these people trying to convince me that I have an enemy and that I am at some sort of risk?” Why am I being told that I am a free-thinker, and a superior race if I believe the same things that they believe? Oh wait a minute, these are all the most well-known practices of propaganda!!!! These are the very rules that must be followed if somebody is attempting to brainwash others!! Maybe I should examine what I am being told, despite their books being international bestsellers and the local “freethinkers society” practically treat them as religious texts. That is your introducion to critical thought.
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how many wars can be attributed to the US foren policy?tag:https:,2014:/www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/.178622014-11-01T20:29:50Z2014-11-01T20:53:27Zdmarci
USA has been in perpetuate wars from its inception, I’m interested in the time period after the WW2, I don’t think that religious violence comes even close to the violence of the state.
Another issue related to that is the lack of outcry against atrocities committed by USA government.
I’m wondering what kind of beliefs or delusions are contributing to this?
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Israeli Soldiers Committing Suicidetag:https:,2014:/www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/.178572014-10-28T13:26:41Z1970-01-01T00:00:00ZSattva
Good Morning, Sam,

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2 Current Popes Apparently Participating in Global Anti-Human Surveillance, Political Bribery of Business, and Mind Control Programtag:https:,2014:/www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/.177442014-09-07T05:07:03Z2014-09-07T05:45:04Zpiotr3
You can read how great these 2 popes are by looking at http://www.bandycituska.pl, but unfortunately the site is in Polish. Governments have created an international global-reaching surveillance system that can, amongst other, follow people anywhere they are (even in buildings), hear sounds around them. Without presence in the area, only by receiving EM waves (apparently, from public tv broadcasts echoing). To an extent they can see what is around (and manually adjust the target; fear of getting caught is one of reasons why I am still alive). Almost every country has got such system (see “Passive radar” on English Wikipedia). You will find the existence of this international system described NOWHERE IN THE INTERNET BUT ON THIS BLOG, this is how “wiretaps” work. Further, here in Poland various political parties have bribed almost every company in the country after media were bribed in 2006-8. They cooperate with politicians and the Police in spying (e.g. children of an entrepreneur) and, more important, in playing subliminal mind-manipulating sounds everywhere upon need (depends on where the spied person is; phones are connected with police’s number 112 all the time, the telephone exchange redirects this, just as it does to allow other phones to play my life). This system also became international. I had been tortured with especially prepared sounds and persecuted worldwide by thousands of people, evil masses everywhere - this is my last 3 years of life (surveillance alone is 10 years, since 2004; now constant dialogue with torture from subliminal sounds; precisely TORTURE is since January 2013, really painful in every second). You can see it described and PROVED with Nokia movies, recordings, photos on my blog BandyciTuska.pl (“Tusk’s bandits”). Every apartment building has got such shitty people who are ready to torture me with subliminal crap, bribery quickly worsens the problem.

They can also see screens of computers by so-called TEMPEST emissions (waves), and also recognize pressed keys by specific sound of different buttons. And also this is shared with entrepreneurs by giving them, apparently, a computer program. The media have long been in this, it is really 100% certain.

And, you know? The pope supports it. They do such surveillance on my private life too, have done this for years. No media company will describe it due to corruption of companies (tax benefits), and the Church will neither. They only leave “signs” in articles, like rude alusions, to show they are hearing and watching. Various proofs and movies can be found on blog http://WWW.BANDYCITUSKA.PL but it’s in Polish, unfortunately. If you are interested then the Vatican looks like it participated in this inter-governmental evil operation, it is “90% certain” if the case with media, companies and Police is 100%. The participation likely began due to financial matters, it was initially spying alone, now maybe even they are somehow responsible for turture in “several places” dependent on the Vatican. I am so tired and mentally weak that I have no time to name and upload more videos but the old from 2013 are there on the blog, if anyone is interested (usually here in Warsaw or Poland nobody is, so broad is the corruption in this particular sample country). This is a GIGANTIC European and international problem! Have travelled the world, really

blog reports can be found by searching for bandyci tuska. [Sent to forums: atheistfoundation.org.au (not published by moders), atheismuk.com, atheismplus.com, atheistrepublic.com, thethinkingatheist.com (censored), atheistnetwork2.com (deleted)] You can ask their cardinals like Petro Parolin (vati023 at genaff-segstat dot va, vati032 at relstat-segstat dot va) whether anybody responded and how, even with the standard compassion sayings. Or call him +3906 6988 3913 (google the quoted number “06.69.88.39.13” to verify). Instead of a reply a kind of cold and sad jokes were published by their media, see blog reports with photos of computer and Internet. Reply to PIOTR NIZYNSKI will likely never come, I am suffering total torture and torment every moment and it’s likely they can hear and feel this with me, know it very well. See the date of letter. LETTER: http://www.bandycituska.pl/pap.pdf CONFIRMATION OF DELIVERY: http://www.bandycituska.pl/odbior.pdf PROOF OF SENDING: http://www.bandycituska.pl - plus phone talks and mails to Vatican officials

PS expect this post to be deleted from this forum. The admins blocked my Chrome the very moment I was about to post (after registration), even added my fresh (1min before) created account to a blocklist where “the site is offline for maintenance” appears. Looks like surveillance in realtime(??)

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The “cross” at Ground Zero….tag:https:,2014:/www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/.176672014-07-29T17:04:25Z1970-01-01T00:00:00ZVipersdad
Recently an old high school friend of mine posted a note on Facebook decrying the reaction that “Atheists” were having to the “cross” that’s been erected at the former World Trade Center (Ground Zero) Site.

There are several points I’ll make in another posting about the general behaviour and lack of social sensitivity of the religionists on social media platforms like facebook, so I won’t deal with that here…. Suffice to say that most of their postings are offensive in general and the “chime in’s” usually “amp-up” the volume.

But I could not let this go - because of several key points that I’d like to repeat here for whatever discussion as they are worth:

Of course my point is that the cross does not belong there and is a symbol of the force that was the root cause of the whole 9/11 business in the first place. My rationale is reducible to the following arguments:

1. The constitutional argument: The average American citizen should be more than aware than I am regarding the details of the establishment clause. Should federal or state tax dollars be funding this memorial, the notion that those dollars would be funding one religious icon over another can easily be inferred as preference for one belief system over another….which is arguably a violation of the spirit, if not the letter of that provision in the U.S. constitution.

2. The “equal time” or “fairness” argument - There were people of at least 7 or 8 of the earths’ major faiths counted among the victims of the 9/11 attacks including (I’m quite certain) non-believers. Among the Earth’s so-called “great religions,” Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and Muslims also have precious icons that I am sure they would like displayed at the site to memorialize their dead. Given the catastrophic nature of the building collapse, I’m pretty sure that anything that was in the hands of the victims at the moment of their deaths are unrecognizable but it’s almost certain that at least someone had some precious item representing their link to their god in hand when the building fell.

3. “Patternicity:” Michael Schermer is an author / intellectual and the publisher of Skeptic Magazine, is the one who coined the term “patternicity.” It speaks to the human tendency to find patterns that appear familiar to us in a variety of shapes and surfaces. The Virgin Mary in Tortillas, etc… are examples of this. To tell me that they found a cross shape in the rubble of two buildings of that size should surprise no one. It was a steel structure full of right-angles and “t-shaped” cross-beams. I am 100% certain there were MANY such shapes found in the rubble. Why not stand up 3 of them to represent the crosses that were supposed to have been up on Calvary on Good Friday? The fact that a “t” was found in the rubble attests to no religion and should not even serve to raise the eyebrows of the most ardent believers.

4. What does the Cross Represent to other people of the world? Along those lines…. to a non-believer or a person of a non-Christian faith, the Crucifix represents something entirely different. When viewed through the lens of history, the Cross was an implement of Gruesome and Ghastly Torture and Execution to hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) during Roman Times. Remember all of the horrifying uses of the Crucifix in the hands of Christians through the middle ages and up to our modern day, from the Crusades, to Witch Burnings, to the Antebellum acts of groups like the Ku-Klux-Klan. The Cross has been used often as an implement of oppression by Christians against non-Christians and we conveniently forget what that icon might mean to others. While Islam is currently perceived to be the religion of violence and uncivilized values, one does not need to look far back in to history to see Christianity carrying that torch…and using it to light the fires of incineration of the non-believers. Ask yourself how a person like Fred Phelps or Joseph Kony or Warren Jeffs or Eric Rudolph, etc,, etc… would behave towards non-christians if they had any actual power….we don’t have to even imagine it. In Northern Ireland, and Bosnia, and Africa and even in the USA, the so-called “armies of Jesus” have engaged in murder, torture, and insurrection in very recent times…all in the name of the “prince of peace.” The cross is not a symbol of comfort or peace.

5. Religion as the “first cause” of this conflict: We should never let the faithful forget that Christians, Jews, and Muslims comprise a triangle of death and destruction that dates back at least to 600 A.D., but far earlier than that in reality. This cocktail of powerful beliefs (all stemming from the bronze or iron age values), coupled with Modern technology and military tactics and technology is dangerous and we should not forget that. These are not territorial conflicts at their root - all three “sides” here have orders from the creator of the Universe and have been trying to dislodge the other two groups from that desolate patch of land for over 2000 years. The 9/11 episode, as horrifying and jarring as it was to Americans and others around the world, represented a “teaching moment” that was largely lost in the bellicose rhetoric in days/weeks/months and years afterwards. People were rarely reminded hat this is yet another event in a very long history of religious - inspired violence that is seemingly without end.

I know that the word “Atheist” has baggage associated with it…and has since Socrates was put to death, in part because he professed a version of “deism” that did not conform to the norms of the day.
We, of course, are reminded by the likes of Sam and Richard Dawkins that everyone is an atheist in some way. There is a continuum or spectrum of degrees of belief in any religion around the world. Everyone is an atheist in one way or another and that’s the philosophical issue here that religionists don’t want to talk about.

Over the history of belief, Atheists have been driven in to dark corners, marginalized, tortured, and put to death for their own views. It’s not a mystery, therefore, that many people who are TRULY atheists are afraid to say so for fear of social marginalization at minimum, and it bears commentary that under Sharia law, the penalty for apostasy is still death, and it’s carried out in places like Yemen, Iran, etc… today.
In Africa, Witches are still being burned (Exodus 22:18)....think about it. So it is still happening today and would happen in America if it were allowed to.

Atheists have rights too.. and if you listen to prominent religious leaders in this country (some of whom serve in Congress), those rights are disregarded with alarming regularity. To quote the 2nd Amendment crowd, “if you don’t exercise your rights, you lose them.”

There is an argument that the Cross provided comfort in the days following the attack. I guess that if people find comfort in something, it’s noteworthy and important…. any monument in America should represent the event and it’s impact and import, but should also educate and inform.

but to drive a point in to the ground that I’ve probably driven farther than need be…the LAST thing that is needed in a place like ground zero is a religious icon.

the whole thing was the fault of religion to begin with.

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Inequality in Americatag:https:,2014:/www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/.176642014-07-23T09:07:13Z1970-01-01T00:00:00Zechochamberlain
Assessing Inequality in America requires a comprehensive look, beyond the ratcheted-up rhetoric and demagoguery. A thorough look is disturbing and confounding, as explained in this compelling piece: http://sheppardpost.com/inequality-in-america/
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How Many Wars Are Attributable to Religions?tag:https:,2014:/www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/.176632014-07-22T07:30:41Z1970-01-01T00:00:00ZTom1955
How many wars are attributable to religions?

Or, what percentage of wars are attributable to religions?

Discuss.

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Organizations for Freethinkers/Humanists Whateverstag:https:,2014:/www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/.176592014-07-16T16:34:25Z1970-01-01T00:00:00Zmemeswriter
Hey everyone. I am very curious about people’s experiences with organizations for frreethinkers/atheists/agnostics/whatevers.

I"m especially interested in your experiences with freethinker community types. I’ve recently joined the Ethical Culture Society here in New York City and its fascinatingly alike and unalike the Catholic parish I was born into in another part of New York City.

I’m fascinated and having the time of my life being a part of an actual community where I don’t have to pretend to believe one single thing. Basically as far as I can make out, all I’m agreeing to is that people are good and that I can improve myself by helping improve other people. So far so good. I"m meeting these folks and it seems like they are actually taking this whole liking other human beings thing seriously even without the benefit of some list of the elect vs the damned. I’m charmed by that. Social cohesion in the absence of designated groups for us to feel better than? I don’t see how its possible and I’m keeping my eyes open.

Anyone with experience in freethinker communities? I am at pains to distinguish between an interest group or a community. A community is a bigger entity than me and a few friends and like minded individuals.